Many creative teams behind established properties rehash the same story for a new generation since itís easy to make money for a while off of nostalgia. With such a huge wellspring of TMNT lore to pull from Iím consistently impressed at how original your ongoing story has been, now more than ever. At the same time Iím positively glowing with nostalgia each issue I read.

This is a big open question, but will you offer some insight into your creative process? Or more specifically, when formulating story arcs and direction how do you balance original content with just enough inspiration from past iterations to keep things fresh, but in sync with what TMNT means to so many fans?

At any given time we've got a couple long-term plans in mind that we are working on building to. Then, we take a look at where we've been recently, in terms of plot and character development, and ask what makes sense next. Then you mix in a dollop of spur-of-the-moment ideas that hopefully make a short or long term plan better.

Tom and I, and in the past year Kevin has been very involved in this process as well, have a sit and discuss the next storyline coming up. While we do that, we usually get ideas for upcoming story lines further down the road.

So basically we have a skeleton of the overall story leading to, say #50, or #100. From month to month, we fill in some internal organs on storylines that are anywhere from six-to-twelve months ahead, while putting the skin, hair, and clothing on the storylines that we are currently writing and producing. So one foot in the present, one foot in the near future, one foot in the long term. Yes, i've just described some hideous, three-footed semi-formed monstrosity, but that's storytelling!

In terms of original vs. old characters, if an old character serves a purpose in the story we're telling, then we will usually include them to get the pleasant bonus of a little nostalgia hype going (but it's important to note that we only do that when it serves the story. It'd be easy to trot out characters for no purpose other than that instant nostalgia hype, but we try to wait for the right moment, like we did with Bebop and Rocksteady, or Rat King, etc). If no old character comes to mind that serves the story, then we create a new character.

Sometimes, we have situations where old characters COULD maybe fit, like Armaggon for Bludgeon, but the old characters are so different in purpose and personality, that they are not a good fit for the story we are telling, even if they seem so on paper.

It's been a long time coming, and I can at last ask a question that's been bugging me for a while.

Where on Earth (or Utrominion?) is Krang's mother? I don't think there's room for an in-story explanation and it's just a very minor inconvenience. But it's still something I've been wondering about. For now, I'm assuming she died before the Krang on Morbus event, but some confirmation would be nice.

*Gleeful squawk for A Sophie Campbell Christmas*

Krang's mother has never been explored at all-- I don't think anyone internally has ever even brought her up. In retrospect, I think we've done pretty poorly by mothers. Outside of April's mom, they are all dead (Tang Shen, Casey's mom, Angel's mom) or non-existant (Oroku Saki's mom, Krang's mom). It's a blind spot of ours that I'm not proud of.

So maybe we'll see Krang's mom one day, she could still be alive somewhere in Dimension X, maybe. Though personally i'm kind of attracted to the idea that the Utroms don't have genders and have some peculiar method of reproducing. I can say we will be diving into the uniqueness of the Utrom species down the road.

Krang's mother has never been explored at all-- I don't think anyone internally has ever even brought her up. In retrospect, I think we've done pretty poorly by mothers. Outside of April's mom, they are all dead (Tang Shen, Casey's mom, Angel's mom) or non-existant (Oroku Saki's mom, Krang's mom). It's a blind spot of ours that I'm not proud of.

So maybe we'll see Krang's mom one day, she could still be alive somewhere in Dimension X, maybe. Though personally i'm kind of attracted to the idea that the Utroms don't have genders and have some peculiar method of reproducing. I can say we will be diving into the uniqueness of the Utrom species down the road.

A minor thing, will April grow her hair long again, or will she remain with short hair for the rest of the series?

Most character designs are dependent on the artist having a strong feeling about it, like Sophie did during Northampton. Tom and I almost never indicate physical/fashion changes, as we like to let the artists do their own thing whenever possible.

So, no plans to change it, but if an artist really wanted to, they could.

An unintended possible side-effect of this thread... I may get less Ninja Notes!! And that would be bad, as we've been running low recently, and questions make the best letters (we get so many "i've been a TMNT fan for years!" letters, which get boring to read fast, though I appreciate getting them)

Point is, happy answer questions here, but I hope folks will consider saving some and sending them in. Get your name in print!!

In response to this: I have never written a ninja note in hopes that it would be published, and I had never really thought about doing that. That does not mean that I wouldn't like to have one of my questions published along with its answer in an actual TMNT comic. Seeing as many people jumped at this thread to ask you many questions, would it be possible to have questions from this thread be published in the ninja notes section if we provide the necessary personal information to go along with the question? Getting questions from a site based around TMNT fans seems like it should be fairly easy... I hope

In response to this: I have never written a ninja note in hopes that it would be published, and I had never really thought about doing that. That does not mean that I wouldn't like to have one of my questions published along with its answer in an actual TMNT comic. Seeing as many people jumped at this thread to ask you many questions, would it be possible to have questions from this thread be published in the ninja notes section if we provide the necessary personal information to go along with the question? Getting questions from a site based around TMNT fans seems like it should be fairly easy... I hope

That's a good idea. If you'd like your question to be considered for Ninja Notes, just add "OK to PRINT" Include as much personal information (name, city or state of residence) as you want.

That's a good idea. If you'd like your question to be considered for Ninja Notes, just add "OK to PRINT" Include as much personal information (name, city or state of residence) as you want.

I'll edit the opening post to include that!

Awesome, thanks! I'd be happy to have my question printed, I'll re-post it below! (with a few edits for print)

Hey IDW Team! So I read that the upcoming Deviations issue (where in an alternate universe, the TMNT join Shredder) is just a one shot. I love the idea behind it, so I was wondering, with all the different crossovers the main IDW turtles have had, and how successful they are, any chance we could see the turtles from Deviations crossover into the main TMNT ongoing series? Because that would be epic!

Why are the original movie trilogy characters off the table? It was my understanding that Mirage had the rights - which is why Tokka and Rahzar showed up in things long after the movies (and you guys have even published two series where the latter appears) and Pennington was in a Mirage book, along with plans for Keno at one point...

Why are the original movie trilogy characters off the table? It was my understanding that Mirage had the rights - which is why Tokka and Rahzar showed up in things long after the movies (and you guys have even published two series where the latter appears) and Pennington was in a Mirage book, along with plans for Keno at one point...

No clue. Might be that the actors have some sort of rights with the character, but that's pure speculation.

Funny you mention Rob there Redeemer, I was recently introduced to him by a mate, and he's definitely talented. He's also the one who helped me get the swag from the recent dinner in San Diego with Kevin heh. He's worked with Kevin before, almost ten years ago, and I know he'd love to work with Kevin again, so I think a TMNT gig would be excellent

Also been speaking to Mike Dialynas, who's doing the current issues, and getting a commission from him next month. Pity all his issues were done digitally, otherwise I'd consider buying a page or two.

So oooooooooooon that note, question for you Bobby... is there any artist you'd like to invite on to do a TMNT issue or more, or any that you've wanted to get and be unable to so far?